KOSA UPDATE:

The bill now has a total of 62 co-sponsors (Dems and Republicans). They purportedly rewrote the bill to "address concerns", but the bill would still require you to upload your govt ID and use an age-gate in order to access information on the web.

LGBT+ advocacy organizations such as the Trevor Project, GLAAD, Human Rights Campaign, PFLAG National, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and National Center for Transgender Rights, withdrawn their opposition against the bill.

We have until next week (2/26/24), maybe, to get louder about this.

Go to:

Don't just reblog this. Interact with the above items. Use your best judgement when writing in or calling your reps. Just let them know you oppose this and the ramifications it could have for your internet privacy, personal security, and the safety of youths.

“…the sight of Elon Musk charging towards Wikipedia with his trademark guile and delicacy was so predictable that it was almost relaxing. He saw a collective resource that people prized and he wanted to hurt it.”

Thoth knows Wikipedia’s not perfect, but I’d sooner have it handy than not have it.

Hey, you know how we spent 7.99 at Tumblr for useless blue checkmarks mainly to spite Musk? Maybe we should go donate the same amount to Wikipedia out of spite. And also because Wikipedia is far more useful than the accurately-named useless blue checks.

I mean, same spite, but actually getting something in return? Sounds like a deal to me...

GO DONATE TO WIKIPEDIA BEFORE ITS TOO LATE

Alright US mutuals, if you are interested in, morbidly fascinated by, or anxiously doomscrolling through AI news, including Stable Diffusion, Llama, ChatGPT or Dalle, you need to be aware of this.

The US Copyright Office has submitted a request for comment from the general public. Guidelines can be found on their site, but the gist of it is that they are taking citizen statements on what your views on AI are, and how the Copyright Office should address the admittedly thorny issues in rulings.

Be polite, be succinct, and be honest. They have a list of questions or suggestions, but in truth are looking to get as much data from the general public as possible. If you have links to papers or studies examining the economic impacts of AI, they want them. If you have anecdotal stories of losing commissions, they want them. If you have legal opinions, experience using these tools, or even a layman's perspective of how much human input is required for a piece of work to gain copyright, they want it.

The deadline is Oct 18th and can be submitted via the link in the article. While the regulatory apparatus of the US is largely under sway by corporate interests, this is still the actual, official time for you to directly tell the government what you think and what they should do. Comments can be submitted by individuals or on behalf of organizations. So if you are a small business, say a print shop, you can comment on behalf of the print shop as well.

Do a illustrator a favour and do this.

the US Copyright Office is asking for public comment on AI and copyright!!! now is the time to be LOUD about it so there can be government regulations.

GO COMMENT RIGHT NOW:

CALL TO ACTION to support WGA/SAG-AFTRA: Submit a comment about the corporate monopoly crisis.

August 18, 2023: You can personalize the template message included in the above link, or simply just add your name & email. Seems like it's US only; please boost if you can't sign yourself.

From the WGA:

The FTC and DOJ are accepting comments on their revisions of the Merger Guidelines until September 18.

Destroy the myth that libraries are no longer relevant. If you use your library, please reblog.

Aloha.

I'm unsure if I have mentioned this before, but I am from Hawai'i and if you've been keeping up with the news, you may be aware of the fires that have decimated Lahaina in Maui.

While I am from another island and most people I know are safe, I have many, many friends from Maui and they and their families have been directly affected by the fires--some of my close friends have even lost their homes.

So I am currently asking for you guys to consider donating to the many organizations and even personal GoFundMe's so these families, my friends, can find relief and recover.

Here's a few links to help support Maui:

‘Āina Momona Hawai'i Community Foundation Nā Wahine Toa Maui Mutual Aid Guide (Resource List, not donation)

Also adding this Google Doc with links to several families’ GoFundMe’s so that you can donate directly the families themselves!

It has been confirmed that the Lahaina fires has been one of the deadliest fires in US history in over a century.

Wildfires in Hawai’i are incomparable to wildfires in California—Maui is an island, and all important necessities like gas, water, food, etc. has to be flown over and there are less hospitals overall.

I’ve contacted all of my friends from Maui, and even my former college professors, and out of all of them, only one of my friend’s managed to be lucky enough to keep their homes. One of my friends lost both their family home over 30+ years and their business.

I’m grateful to say among my friends’ families, no lives were lost, but everything else was.

So I’m reblogging this again to both signal boost what’s going on and to ask you guys to please donate.

Click here to visit the bonfire store

Click here to directly donate to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Show your support virtually with free icons

If you can't donate, but would like to help out, consider reblogging this post!

CGI animators should unionize next. normally, their jobs would be too precarious to strike, since studios would replace them without a second thought, but if it's part of this larger general film strike, they might finally have meaningful power to better their working conditions

if CGI animators unionized, it would kill the MCU. straight up. the the entire business model is built on exploiting CGI animators

THEY ARE TRYING!!!!! SIGN THE PETITION TO GET THE DISNEY ANIMATORS' UNION RECOGNIZED

this petition is from IATSE (union), btw! it actually has credibility, unlike most change.org/etc petitions! please sign it!!

people moving to tumblr from twitter please fucking reblog art likes literally dont do anything except make the artist upset bc they have 2 reblogs and 55 likes

yes this includes fanfiction, gif sets, edits, etc.

theres this one person who reblogs this post like 20 times a day and then sometimes will also reblog it like 200 times at once and also anytime it appears on their dash they apparently will queue it again too and i just want you all to know that you pissed them off real bad and that should be your sign to reblog art actually. for them

heyyyyy followers and mutuals who think this only applies to people from twitter:

it doesn’t.

jesus fucking christ

"i wish i could do something 😔 / i wish the wga had a kickstarter or a gofundme, i would throw money at it" good news! it's amazing how you can literally go onto the wga strike website or the wgawest linktree from their twitter and find links to support writers and other workers affected by the strike

PRIDE MONTH BOOK SALE 🌈📚💫

My queer fiction is half off all June! Read stories full of queer characters living their best lives (even if it is in the middle of the apocalypse).

This is the deepest discounts on my books yet, so don't miss out!!

Itchio 🎮 https://itch.io/s/94769/pride-month-book-sale-

My Shop ☕ https://ko-fi.com/mkirin/link/PRIDEMONTH

Bill Criminalizing Librarians Revived - again.

April 21, 2023: After the sound defeat of language calling for felony charges against librarians and educators in SB 12 and SB 380 earlier in April, the Indiana legislature is once more considering criminalizing librarians and educators for the materials on their shelves.

Here's the Indiana Capital Chronicle on the situation:

The legislators themselves don't know yet what bill the language will be slipped into, but we expect they'll hear it next week, possibly as early as Monday, April 24.

What To Do:

They're moving fast, so if you live in Indiana and feel strongly about libraries and censorship, please call your reps and senators NOW. Even if you already contacted them earlier this session!

Here's how to find and contact your legislators: https://iga.in.gov/legislative/find-legislators/

Here are some talking points and the general gist of our concerns:

And here's our own webpage where you can catch up on the situation and stay updated: https://www.lcplin.org/billupdates

If you don't live in Indiana:

Please do not contact the Indiana legislature about this! Instead, you can just hit that reblog button and help us reach as many people as possible.

Thank you, everyone, for your continued support of libraries and librarians!!

who are some kid/teen heroes you guys wanna see hartley get stuck babysitting (i vote one of them being damian wayne bc thats funny as hell, he would HATE getting stuck with a BAYSITTER)

also jai and irey r there too. and maxine.

but who ELSE tho

Lian Harper would be fun.

if you’re a gifmaker, you need to read this

staff has announced that on may 15, they’re forcing everyone to switch to the new beta post editor. this is very, very bad for gifs. @saintalicent made a post detailing the difference between the old and new post editors, but basically the new post editor shoves gifs into a text post and slightly resizes them, lowering the quality of the gifs.

gifmakers are the backbone of this website, and staff needs to be reminded of this. if you’re a gifmaker, please send polite feedback to staff explaining that you don’t want the quality of your gifs to be reduced and that this will negatively affect your experience on this website.

we got them to back off on the gif to mp4 thing last year, and we need them to back off on this. please reblog for visibility.